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    Possible VIDEOCARD Upgrade to M17x R3

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by viciosogb, Jan 19, 2015.

  1. viciosogb

    viciosogb Newbie

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    Hi,

    I always follow the advices of this great forum, so I come to your experiences to help me with some knowledge.

    I recently got my videocard fried, so now I want to take this with good mood and go for an upgrade.

    My questions are these:
    Is possible to upgrade from a Radeon 6970m to a nvidia GTX880m (or what is the limit-top for this alienware model)?
    What is needed?
    Could be better just another Radeon lets say the 8970m?
    What is the difference between a GTX880m MXM 3.0 Tipe B and just GTX880m?
    What sellers are the most recommended to buy the videocards from?

    I hope you can help me with this setback and get an optimus upgrade.
    Thanks in advance to all
     
    viciosogb, Jan 19, 2015
    #1
  2. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The 880M has issues. Forget it. Just grab a 780M. 880M = 780M with more VRAM. They're the same card.

    Maxwell doesn't work in the R3, yet. Not sure if it ever will.
     
    J.Dre, Jan 19, 2015
    #2
  3. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    yeah, go with a 780m and overclock the crap out of it!
     
    thegh0sts, Jan 19, 2015
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  4. viciosogb

    viciosogb Newbie

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    Thanks so much for your replies.

    The Gtx780m will be then, but the heatsink from my dead 6970 will fit the Gtx780m?
    Im already looking into ebay to buy it but I dont know who to trust, I dont want to recieve a rock or something, anyone knows a good trusted seller?
    Another thing that confuse me is that I see a MXM Type B card and 4gb,6gb or 8gb?
    The R3 can work perfectly with 8gb!?!?

    If anyone can explain the differences and the most apparent
     
    viciosogb, Jan 19, 2015
    #4
  5. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    shouldn't be a problem though it's recommended that you get a 3-pipe heatsink.
     
    thegh0sts, Jan 19, 2015
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  6. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    TomJGX, Jan 20, 2015
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  7. viciosogb

    viciosogb Newbie

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    yes I have a 3 pipe heatsink.
    With all your advices I'm going in, I'll upgrade my card as soon as I buy it.
    Hope with no problems

    Thanks to all
     
    viciosogb, Jan 20, 2015
    #7
  8. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    make sure you take the black tape off the part of the heatsink that makes contract with the gpu if you have it or else the gpu die won't make good contact with the heatsink and cause high temps. ;)
     
    bigtonyman, Jan 20, 2015
    #8
  9. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    Yes make sure you do this.. The AMD die is at an angle so they put this tape.. whichever way, the tape isn't needed and shouldn't have been put there..
     
    TomJGX, Jan 21, 2015
    #9